The first up-close-and-personal look at 26-year-old left-hander revealed both that Torres had indeed been throwing while waiting for all the red tape to unwind and that he was coming as advertised.

“He looked good,” Hedges said after catching Torres’ first bullpen. “There was no catch-up there. He looked like he was ready to go.”

More to the point, Torres looked plenty capable of becoming a lockdown reliever in the back of the Padres’ bullpen. Here’s Hedges’ initial impression:

“That was the first time I’d seen him throw. Pretty electric stuff. The fastball seems like it gets on you a little bit. The changeup, the bottom dropped out of it. A good, hard, tight slider.

He was throwing everything to both sides of the plate so he looked like he had a good idea – he’ll be able to throw all of his pitches to either hitter. I didn’t get to talk to him too much about it, but it’s definitely stuff that is going to get guys out.”